Skills

RN-XV WiFly Module - Wire Antenna

Description: The RN-XV module by Roving Networks is a certified Wi-Fi solution especially designed for customer who want to migrate their existing 802.15.4 architecture to a standard TCP/IP based platform without having to redesign their existing hardware. In other words, if your project is set up for XBee and you want to move it to a standard WiFi network, you can drop this in the same socket without any other new hardware.

The RN-XV module is based upon Roving Networks' robust RN-171 Wi-Fi module and incorporates 802.11 b/g radio, 32 bit processor, TCP/IP stack, real-time clock, crypto accelerator, power management unit and analog sensor interface.The module is pre-loaded with Roving firmware to simplify integration and minimize development time of your application. In the simplest configuration, the hardware only requires four connections (PWR, TX, RX and GND) to create a wireless data connection.

sweeeeeeeeet!
after much head scratching, i was able to get this thing to work. couldn’t connect via serial, i kept getting “Auto-Assoc…FAILED” message. and no matter how i tried to send $$$, it wouldn’t go into CMD mode.

however these steps worked:

In addition to GND, 3.3V, TX, RX, also connect PIO9 (pin 8) to 3.3V

Recycle power, since PIO9 is high, it goes into ADHOC mode

Connect to the “WiFly” ssid from my laptop

Telnet to the IPAddress 169.254.1.1:2000
You should now see HELLO on your telnet screen

Type $$$
You shold now see CMD on your telnet screen

Perform the commands:

set wlan phrase YOUR_PASS_PHRASE

set wlan ssid YOUR_SSID

save

reboot

when i did this each letter showed up twice as i typed, but didn’t seem to matter

When it rebooted, i lost the connection, but since my CoolTerm window was open, i noticed the RN-XV automatically connected to specified SSID and got an ip. My laptop jumped back to my usual wifi network as well

I telnet to that new IP

It should again say HELLO, Again type $$$ and again it says CMD.

Now type “ftp u” and the firmware update is performed.

Now on startup, the RN-XV auto connects to my network and the green light blinks slowly.

many thanks to Virgil_Disgr4ce, would have taken me much longer without your article.

I had a similar problem when I bricked my module when updating the firmware.
I found this solution though:

http://www.microchip.com/forums/m786903.aspx

—-from post #5————

It is not so easy but there is a procedure to regain factory reset with IO toggling GPIO9
I did it on my RN-171-EK using the 2 buttons but I had to retry many times.
You hold down the GPIO9 while pushing reset and then release reset.
After waiting a little more than One second, you press (toggle GPIO9) and you do this several times (more than 5) .
Repeat this 5 to 10 times and you should eventually see some message coming back at original speed (9600).
I has a similar issue when playing with FW updates. I tried to go down from v4.41 to V4.00 and I blocked the module. It would not respond to any command .
After several trials it eventually spitted out again some message at 9600 bauds

wow… ok… should have read Zacken’s comment above more closely. the RN-XV does NOT play well with xbee explorer regulated. seems like people have had trouble with the xbee sheild as well.

i got rid of the explorer and hooked up 3.3V, GND, RX, TX directly to the RN-XV, and its working much better. i was a little worried that an unregulated RX, TX signal would damage the device but it appears to not have a problem with it.

SparkFun, could you please adjust the product description - it’s not compatible with all xbee adapters. i’m going to order the xbee breakout board which i think is most suitable for this.
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8276

The XBee Explorer Regulated and XBee shield both depend on the onboard diode to do levelshifting for the Din pin. This method requires a pull-up resistor on Din. Series 1 and Series 2 XBees have a pull-up resistor enabled by default and the 900MHz modules have an internal pull-up that you have to configure (but its there). The RX-XV modules do not have an internal pull-up resistor, meaning you will need to add an external one (a 10k resistor between the Din pin of the RN-XV and VCC will work).

Can you explain most detailed this solution, because i connect a pull up resistor (10k)on the Din pin of the explorer regulated and this not work… the wifly is not receiving data from the uart however he can send to the uart any comments or suggest is well recived

The Din pin on the board and the Din pin of the RN-XV are not the same. There is actually a diode inbetween them. You actually need to connect to the Din pin of the RN-XV by soldering the other end of the resistor to the header pins.

I have tried a 47K pull resistor and i still cannot get a connection. The signal I have with the resistor is 2.32V High and 1.56V low on DIN on the RN-XV headers pin3. Looking at the RN-171 data sheet is specifies a VIL Max as 1.0V for data pins. Would a 47M pull-up resistor be better and help lower to low. I am driving the DIN pin on the board with 5.12V to 1.12V signal.

Also confusingly the the RN-VX datasheet (see http://www.rovingnetworks.com/products/RN171XV ) says it is TTL UART, which would imply 5V VIH Max, but i cannot confirm the VIL/VIH from the data sheet.

By default, wiring the module with VCC, GND, TXD and RXD the sleep command will cause the current to drop down to around 330uA.

To lower the power, GPIO4, 5, 6, 7, 8 need a 100k pull down. The resistors on board are not pull downs. They are used for setting the pinout configuration. Other than this as long as the UART IO lines are kept low in sleep mode the current consumption should be low too.

You MUST see an assigned IP address when you join the network or this will never work.
I did 10 board this way at my public library. My work wireless was too secure. I used a Sparkfun Xbee USB breakout board, TerraTerm and that was it.

I tried to use the Arduino bootloader over wifi, (avrdude supports TCP, apparently), and the programming did not complete (it says the AVR was initialized, but then stopped). Now, all I get is a solid red LED on the RN-XV, and WPS-APP V1.231 on serial.
After looking at the manual, it does not specify what this means. I cannot get into configuration over serial, and it never connects to wifi. I tried enabling WPS on my router, but nothing happened, it never tried to connect.

Just wondering if you have received your repaired device? How long did it take for RN to respond to you?

I, too, have bricked my device within the first 2 hours of having it. For a device with as clean and simple an interface as this device has, it seems like it should be bullet proof from such fatal errors.

RN has been extremely slow to respond with very vague answers on when they will even get me an RMA number let alone a repair.

This is frustrating - I’d love to buy an RN-XV WiFly Module for Christmas to interface with my Arduino Uno for a project in my car that will be controlled via my iPhone, but I’ve read so many things that say 2 way communication is difficult due to logic level conversion problems with BOB-08745. So I was considering BOB-10403 instead.

1)Does anyone have any experience using BOB-10403 with a RN-XV WiFly Module and an Uno? Is it fully capable of bi-directional logic conversion between the Uno and the RN-XV?

2)Are there any shields for the RN-XV WiFly Module that will work as expected and do the voltage and logic conversion for me? That would be my ideal device, but even the shields have issues.

This is a great little WiFi. Needed to INVERT the RS232, but now works like a charm. Using the AdHoc mode, I ran 3.3 volt power, held the AdHoc line HIGH, run the RX,TX to a PIC 12Fxxx and out to my USB/RS232 dongle and in ten minutes, I was sending data and commands from my iPhone. Starting to write an iPhone/Android app to automate the process.

Things were going great for WiFly and I until today. I use WiFly on the SparkFun RedBot. Way better than XBee for me since I am using Python on my computer which talks directly to WiFly via socket connection (see pymata-aio for more there). Anyway RedBot uses 3.3V on the power rail but the Rx and Tx connect straight to the WiFly’s Tx and Rx. So there is a 5v concern on Arduino’s 5v Tx to WiFly’s Rx. It actually has worked for a few weeks on the XBee HW Serial option. No problems! I’m getting lucky I guess. But for only 1 day I used the XBee SW Serial option on the RedBot and that equaled WiFly death within an hour. :( Any thoughts why the RedBot 5v lines from the HW Tx was fine, but the SoftwareSerial Tx was 5 volts of death? I looked at the RedBot schematic: https://cdn.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Robotics/RedBot_v12.pdf and honestly I’m not sure why SoftwareSerial was death to my WiFly, but HW serial has been fine for weeks. Any thoughts? Did I just get unlucky or will the new WiFly I ordered last an hour too? :) I can just stick with HW serial, but I’d like to use SW serial for WiFly setup.

So SparkFun I’d love to get a 5v tolerant version of this board. It’s absolutely the perfect match for RedBot if you are using Python or another program that can make a simple TCP socket connection. LOVE to use it with more confidence on RedBot rather than hoping 5v coming in to Rx survives the day. :)

The free app pfodWifiConfig lets you easily configure RN WiFly to connect to any network and also set other device parameters like Sever listen port or client host and loging
example sketch and supporting libraries are available from
http://www.forward.com.au/pfod/pfodWifiConfig/RN_WiFly/pfodWifiConfig_WiFly.html

The library handles all the $$$ CMD stuff for your and the free Android app provides a user friendly interface.

RN-XV WiFly Module - Wire Antenna is a new product in the market and it seems that this product is likely to give a competition to other protocol users. The only shortcoming is that it is a wired one. Get more information on generic Viagra online (http://www.pharmacyglobalrx.net) so as cure men’s Impotence

I can’t send any comment to the browser….. Everything seems to be ok: 1. The server AP is already started. (open, ip: 1.2.3.4:80, ……) (ARduino Uno+ArduWirelessSDshield+RovingRN171) 2. I can join the AP created for the Roving RN-171 with my MacAir (the ssid appears ok in my Air wifi list). 3. When I type http://1.2.3.4:80 in my browser, the Serial Monitor shows the connection, with the message whole right message blablabla…..keep alive…. 4. But the browser shows only waiting for 1.2.3.4 or…..starts downloading something and remains like this…… 5. The arduino script is very simple, I just want to write something in the browser…

I was able to connect and once i did the firmware upgrade, i am not able to connect anymore. I can see the WiFly-EZX-ff wireless ap but when connected i get Limited Access and no ip. Can any one please help.
I am using RN XV 171, MEGA and Wifi/Xbee-SD Shield for the above.
Thanks in advance - rakesh.salian@gmail.com

Just thought I’d let everyone know that these modules don’t work as advertised. There are numerous firmware issues with the 4.xx series update and Microchip isn’t responding to user submitted bug reports. I contacted them over a year ago reporting issues with the firmware and got no response. That was version 2.32 of the firmware. I resubmitted my bug report in late December and got a “let me check with the developers” response. After another month of back-and-forth, my bug report is inexplicably closed and the firmware is not fixed.

Among the issues noted:
- module spontaneously resets for no reason
- loss of all settings after spontaneous reboot
- UDP broadcast of GPIO states is non functional
- Loss of TCP connection state causes remote connection errors until the session times out

In short, these modules are beyond unreliable. I would not recommend these as a solution in any project and Microchip doesn’t seem to care.

Question. So, I’m using this item on an X-Bee Board from Adafruit (http://www.adafruit.com/products/126), which in turn is hooked up to the Sparkfun basic FTDI cable breakout.

My wireless credentials recently changed, and I can’t command line into the wifly. Its just stuck in a loop of looking for a wireless network that doesn’t exist. eg: “Auto-Assoc…FAILED” etc. I can’t telnet into it either because its too busy and it time out. Everything says set the PI09 to high to create an ADHOC network so you can reboot it.

How do you do that on a explorer or the adafruit board? Or do I have to go hooking jumpers into things, and wire it to an arduino, etc.

The issue is with command termination. When you send $$$ to get into command mode, you must not follow that sequence with a carriage return or line feed. It’s in the data sheet. I use cutecom on a linux laptop and can turn off line endings to get to command mode, but then I have to turn them back on to actually change the settings. It’s annoying that it works that way.

Since Roving Networks was bought by microchip, a lot of the information in the user manual has changed. Here is a link to the latest manual. http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/rn-wiflycr-ug-v1.2r.pdf There are significant upgrades in the v4.00 firmware as well, and the address for firmware upgrades has changed.

Well, I am new to this stuff…. It took me days to just get a serial connection going. For you other newbies, if you are looking to just start off with a simple serial connection go to the Sparkfun forum and see this post.

I use this modules for home automation and alarm purposes.
In the past I used Z-Wave and XBee, but now I changed to Wifly because these modules are so easy to use and operate very reliable.
Because it is just Wifi, you can use all the tools you are used to.

If you are interested, I created a completely wireless motion sensor with this module.
It uses a 1 cel Lipo battery together with the LiPower - Boost Converter for a solid power source.
http://tony-wifly.nl-web.com/
(MotionSensor.pdf)

For anyone attempting to update the firmware on this module, but getting a “timeout=2” error, I posted the solution that worked for me on my blog: http://www.mostthingsweb.com/2013/07/solving-the-timeout2-error-when-updating-wifly-firmware/. Not sure if SparkFun is shipping these with the latest (4.0) firmware, but I got mine a while ago so it needed a update.

Would it be possible to communicate to one of these modules from an Android phone with Wi-Fi Direct? In the Wi-Fi Direct FAQs, it states that Wi-Fi Direct is backwards compatible with existing Wi-Fi devices.

We are facing a couple of issues while trying to call a web service using this product. The responses are both truncated and contain a lot of unreadable characters. Please see details below. Any suggestions?

The formatting of the log file wasnt how I intended. But stated simply, Ú´Ã… in the log is an example of unreadable characters. While IP=192.16 is an example of truncated response. You all seem to have worked on this for a while. Hopefully, someone has a better handle than us.

Just a note for those looking for a simple iPhone to Wifly link app solution. I have made an iPhone transmit app that sends simple ASCII string commands to a Wifly radio, for robotics remote control applications. It’s Star Wars themed (since it’s for controlling an R2-D2 robot!), but since you can customize the button labels and command strings, you could use it for other applications or for quick testing. This is send only. It’s on the app store, called “R2 Touch”. Link below:
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=631960765&mt=8#

On my web site (www.curiousmarc.com) there is also an example configuration of the Wifly for creating an ad-hoc network for the iPhone to connect to, which was actually the difficult thing to figure out.

There is also another more generic iPhone test Wifly app that lets you send data from a console-style interface. This one sends and receives, and also discovers nearby Wiflys from their UDP broadcast. It’s called WiFlyClient, made by the Wifly manufacturer Roving Networks.

I’m having a strange behavior with this module. When it turns on all LEDs are blinking, then after 3-5 seconds green LED goes dark solid. I’m unable to enter in config mode (with $$$ via command line) or establish connection. This happened absolutely spontaneously. I’m afraid it’s bricked somehow… Had anyone something like this?
Thanks for help.

Dear,
to configure my RN-171 through the commands (set), then a REBOOT and module erased general, and now it connects to the serial port, it does not come more in command mode ($ $ $), showing only version firmware and MAC address.
I think it must have corrupted the boot. Does anyone have idea to circumvent the problem?

Got my RN-XV… was able to connect in AdHoc, configure it to my WiFi Network just fine.
It now sits there flashing green every second. I can easily telnet to it from my Win7 machine
using telnet, but whenever I telnet from my iMac, it connects, but does not echo any characters …

Anyone else having issues with telnet from max ( 10.6.8 ) to RN-XV ( 2.32 fw ) .. It connects,
and the amber led flashes when I type, but no characters are echoed back to the mac.

I’ve had one of these for about a year. Recently updated the firmware. My frustration is that I no longer can get it to work with a FIO (blue). It works fine via a FTDI-USB cable - it attaches to my WiFi network and works as expected. However, as soon as I plug it into a FIO (even one with basically a null program) it will no longer attach to the WiFi network. The two “played together” very well 9 months ago. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

(update 20130218) I just ordered a new FIO (red), a new radio, and a XBee breakout board to get to the bottom of this. Don’t feel I should have to make this further investment, but I need to figure out how to move forward!

I’m having the same problem (see next note). If you have any success, PLEASE share it. What’s frustrating is that this module worked in the same FIO last Spring. I’m now wondering if the newer firmware (2.38.3) is the problem.

I’m slowly starting to think that this module is a piece of crap. I modified my energy monitor (http://antibore.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/monitoring-electricity-usage-at-home/) to use RN-XV instead of XBee. Initially I thought the setup is working fine and changes required to code were very minor and no hardware modifications needed.
However I noticed that always after ~10 hours the module will freeze and stop accepting data. I tried to remedy this by issuing reboot command every hour or so, but that didn’t really help much.
As a last thing I modified the hardware so that RN-XV reset pin will be pulled low to reset it every hour. This seemed to work, but now after ~26 hours the module was frozen again. This time it’s a little different though, all three lights are in pattern (1 on, 2 on, 3 on, then all off again and start from the beginning). Manual does not tell pretty much anything about the leds.

Curiously, every time the module gets frozen, it’s still sending out something to the server. I use mac mini as a server and after the module freezes, mini starts to reboot because of kernel panics. The rebooting stops when I cut the power from the module. If I’d have time I’d like to investigate this with Wireshark and try to find the offending packets. Another thing is how the hell some network packet can crash mature kernel code. Reminds me of bad old Windows ‘95 times.

Suggestions are welcome is someone has any. Last thing that I can try is to rig the hardware to cut the power to the module periodically or just give up with this and change the module.

Perhaps using a transistor as a switch to use a periodic signal (Perhaps once every hour or two) from the microcontroller to cut the power for a few seconds and then switch it back on, allowing the module to reboot rather than use the reset pin?

I’ve been working with the RN-XV for a few weeks building a WiFi Garage Door Opener (cool project) and I got to say it’s been nothing but a struggle using this module. Why - because the documentation sucks! The RN-XV data sheet doesn’t even show the three status LED’s, it’s just incomplete! Basically they took the RN171 and put an IP stack on it and renamed it the RN-XV but there are other subtle changes as well and many inconsistencies. So you really need three documents to try to understand what’s going on (RN-XV Datasheet, RN-171 Data Sheet, WiFLY User Manual & Command reference) plus a lot of on-line research.

IMO they need to complete re-write the GPIO and Analog sections so they make more sense. The implementation could be easier too, having the deal with the bit masks and reference that to actual pins could have been done better. In fact they use 0 for input and 1 for output… why not O=0, I-1 like the PIC? Another grip I have is there is no command reference table or summary. You need to scroll through pages and pages to find what your looking for.

So I did finally understand and get all my GPIO working, and then wanted to use an analog sensor pin for a TMP36 temp sensor and hit another brick wall. The documentation is SO POOR on this part that your lucky if you have a clue to what’s going on. After much research on this I finally found the best answers here on this forum.
This might help anyone wanting to use these analog sensor pins. Now is this a cool device - YES Absolutely VERY COOL so let’s hope that Microchip (assuming they acquired Roving Networks?) can get the documentation and examples up to a higher standard that make it more fun to work with!

You MUST see an assigned IP address when you join the network or this will never work.
I did 10 board this way at my public library. My work wireless was too secure. I used a Sparkfun Xbee USB breakout board, TerraTerm and that was it.

hi everyone. i just received my RN-XV. so i start to figure it out. I manage to connect my RN-XV to my android phone via wifi tethering. And i stuck there. what i really wanna do is,plug the rn-xv to my uC circuit. then connect the rn-xv through router, so i can access my uC circuit through any device such as phone, pc and etc. what is the configuration that i need to change?

I need to read analog input on RN-XV (3 analog sensor inputs). For testing, I grounded pin 20, submitted show q 0x1ff and was expecting to read a 0 volts value, but instead was unable to see any difference from leaving the pin open. Same happened with other sensor pins. even tried to change parameters. What am I doing wrong?

Basically if you attempt to open a TCP connection and it fails, then attempt two or three more connections that work the firmware crashes and the WiFly reboots. Here’s my serial log of the crash:
set ip host 192.168.1.42
AOK
set ip remote 80
AOK
open
Connect FAILED

lookup google.com
google.com=74.125.237.8
set ip host 74.125.237.8
AOK
open
*OPEN*CMD
close
*CLOS* open
*OPEN*CMD
close
Unrecoverable failure (7) Misaligned address at PC=0002fb68
The system will be reset

I get exactly the same behaviour on 2.32. I put in a bug report to Roving Networks, and they sent me a new version to test (2.33) but the error still occurred. Last message I got from them said that they can’t reproduce the problem, but they do believe me when I say it exists.

I’m using a USB->Serial adapter connected to the RN-XV and my benchtop supply for 3V3. No worries with any of that.

Right now I just have TeraTerm connected to the RN-XV via serial and that works just fine. Connect to wlan, setup ssid/pass etc without problem.

I’ve used the “Product Training” pdf from the website and get stuck when attempting to set up a bi-directional connection with the PC. Just for reference, that’s on page 36 of the training lab document.

The situation is that I’m able to open the connection on the device but I only get one way communications; from the RN-XV to the TT instance on the PC. I don’t receive data back at the serial output of the RN-XV (even though moments before it indicated “OPEN”. i.e. I have two instances of TeraTerm open. One on COMx talking to the RN-XV (to be replaced by uC eventually), and one using TCP on port 2000. This seemed like a good test setup to familiarise myself with the device.

So, I first thought this must be a firewall issue with outgoing data from my PC over the local network. I’ve added exceptions to the firewall for TeraTerm. I don’t think this is an AP issue either… although not convinced.

I’m really stuck… Once the connection is open, anything I send to the RN-XV via serial is received by TT on port 2000. Anything entered on the same TT window is not received back at the RN-XV serial port.

According to the traing pdf I should expect to see bi-directional comms going at this point.

Hello,
I am currently working on a project intended to create interference on wifi channels (nothing illegal - it is for a university lab dealing with algorithms to switch channels automatically). We have this module and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction to force the module to transmit packets on a specified channel.

That’s exactly what I want to do! I am stuck with the programming on the arduino end - I am fairly new to using arduinos. I figure I can use UDP, but I have only been able to use the command mode directly with the module - not autonomously.

I’ve written an Arduino library for the RN-XV. Version 0.1 is available here github/WiFlyHQ. At the moment it supports hardware and software serial interfaces, sending and recieving UDP packets, making TCP connections and sending and receiving data over the connection.

I plan to add support for all of the RN-XV features, but if you are interested in anything specific then post a request or comment on github and I’ll work on that next.

Hi, I found the unit easy to set up, much more intuitive than xbee, as most of us are used to deal with wi-fi these days; xbee it’s yet another wireless platform… I had problems when setting up sleep, the unit got almost unresponsive… but could work that around resetting it. One thing I’d like to ask to everyone is: xbee can work in a “mesh” which is interesting as it supposedly can relay messages using a string of xbees transparently (no dark spots)… Can that also be achieved using the WiFly RN-XV?
Also just for the register Sparkfun didn’t use foam in the pins, so some of them were quite bent, good they didn’t break when I set them straight…

I am also trying to do exactly the same. My laptop hosts a php server and the WiFly reads a file on the server every second. But after few seconds (which is not fixed, completely random), the module stops receiving data and the green LED on the Wifly which normally blinks becomes solid. A hit-and-trial of adding delays at different positions in the code did improve the situation, but not much. Any idea what might be the problem ? Thanks.

I love this device. I bought one a few weeks back, had no problems setting it up at all.
I’ve written a short guide to setting it up without using a serial adapter, just getting it into ad-hoc mode here:

Question: Can I use this 3.3v Wifi to communicate with an arduino that is powered by 5v? (obviously I wouldn’t be able to power the wifly with 5v, but if they were each correctly powered (arduino with 5v and wifly with 3.3v) would they still be able to work together?

I have a system that is already built, and powered with 5v, and just want to add this module to it.

I had high hopes for this bit of kit but since buying it I’ve seen a few messages saying that the RN-XV + XBee Shield + Arduino Uno combo doesn’t work without hacking at the hardware. Is this still true? I have wasted many hours looking for a solution and just need to know if I have to throw out the kit I’ve got and get something else.

I bought these modules because I have a specific wireless application that I need to build quickly and a breadboarded solution is not appropriate, nor do I want to have to modify the boards.

I have an Uno R3, and RN-XV Rev 3. Can these be made to co-exist without hacking hardware, and if not, please suggest which combination of Arduino Uno compatible modules are known to work?

You can use the XBee breakout board. It def works.
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8276

i had trouble with the XBee explorer regulated and i hear the same issue happens with the xbee shield. OR checkout boulderjoe’s instructable right above your post for a quick way to get your shield working.

Hey Robotechnobloke- As it ships it will not work with the Uno and Sparkfun XBee Shield. But you simply solder a jumper over the the diode and it works. You can see an example in this instructable.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Visual-Network-Threat-Level-Indicator-v2/

This little guy is awesome! Real easy to setup and connect with my Arduino. I used the xbee adapter from adafruit to connect it to my 5v project for simplicity. I did have wifi connectivity issues on the 2.30 image but was able to run the ftp update command to get version 2.31 which resolved all my problems. Currently using it with a pro mini(5v) in a clock project to keep the clock synced with a NTP server.

Hi! I would like to know if the RN-VX is compatible with the ArduinoXBee Communication Shield v1.1 (M. Yarza) and Arduino UNO? Or do I need an 3.3v regulator for the RN-XV?
How can I make it work and uptate de RN-XV firm, it is possible with a Mac computer and all my hardware mentioned before?
Thanx in advance to all.

I ended up turning off authentication on the router to run a firmware update. It connected just fine and I ran the update to 2.31 and when I re-enabled the routers authentication and The RN-XV worked perfectly.

Had problems after updating to 2.30, stopped working with Apple Airport Extreme, would cycle connect/disconnect constantly. WiFly Ver 2.28, 09-08-2011 on RN-171 works just fine. Just reporting this here so anyone with similar problem can try the different version.

Nice module at a great price, plan on using these with the fio for low cost battery powered wifi projects.

If you’re planning on using the analog sensor pins you should note that the WiFly can only handle up to 1.2 volts, not 3.3. Seems like a logic level conversion is in order. But, you can set the WiFly to supply 1.2 reference voltage to a sensor power supply pin that could be applied to the low side of the converter. I suppose you could just use the 1.2 volt supply for some sensors but I think I’ll get 3.3 from elsewhere to supply my sensors and translate the output. Reasonable?

Hello, i’m usign this module and i have some problems with the serial connection with a LPCxpresso 1768. The sent is corrupted, for example, send a number sequence 18576, 18577, 18578 and arrive to computer only 1857, 185 or 185718576 for example. The module is set to 9600 baud without flow control, AP mode and TCP mode (also tested with flow control, in UDP and ad hoc mode). When increase the baud rate, errors are more frequent. ¿Any suggestions? ¿Firmware update?

I have connected this device to my pc via an xbee explorer, which works okay. However, I am having trouble connecting thru telnet. I can not connect from my pc via telnet until I PING my pc from the WiFly. Then things are okay. Any ideas/suggestions on why this is happening and how to fix it?

I’m having trouble putting the device to sleep and waking it up.
Right now the unit is connected in AdHoc mode to my PC and commands are being sent from the PC (over telnet to port 2000) with the unit being powered by two AA cell batteries.

I’ve set the system IO mask to 0x20F0 (enable IO8 as input) and the system trigger to 0x20 (go to sleep on IO8 high), but powering the unit from 3.2V (battery) and then tieing IO8 to VCC does not put the unit to sleep.

I’ve also tried waking the unit up after putting it to sleep with a “sleep” command. I set the system trigger to 0x20 and set CTS (pin 16 to 3.2V (battery) and this does not wake the unit up. I have two IO lines availabe from the MCU and want to be able to put the unit to sleep and wake it up.

I tested sleep mode on a breadboard before making my RN-XV+SD shield. Sleep mode worked fine using the GPIOs. I think I also successfully tested sleep/wakeup using the sleep command and CTS. I wasn’t using ad-hoc mode.

Did you save and reboot after making configuration changes? What firmware version do you have? Sleep using GPIO8 needs version >=2.23, but the manual I have states “NOTE: Currently, the alternative GPIO functions are not available in adhoc mode.”

Just tested the sleep command. You must ensure that you send “sleep”, followed by a carriage return. If you use a carriage return and a newline character then the unnecessary trailing newline character immediately wakes up the RN-XV.

I was forcing adhoc mode by pulling GPIO9 high. In this mode it completely ignores the GPIO8 and CTS signals. When is set adhoc mode in software the GPIO8 line will sometimes put the module to sleep. The manual states that for this to work GPIO8 must be low on powerup and stay low until putting it to sleep. Tying GPIO8 to my MCU does not seem to guarantee that when I’m debugging my code with a JTAG debugger. When I download new code to the device, the RN-XV module goes to sleep, but when I run the code from debug mode, the module wakes up. I’m thinking that the GPIO8 needs a more firm ground with a pull-down resistor. I’m able to wake the unit up by transmitting a garbage character. Also at printlvl=1 (default) the unit prints:

Hi,
This module is perfect for some of my projects. I’ve received mine yesterday, and since then I’m having problems with the HTTP Server feature. I’m trying to post to a webserver some DATA send to the UART via arduino FIO, but by some reason it’s not connecting, or sending. I have the set sys uart 2 option, also if I connect the RN-XV to the USB xbee explorer works just fine. Any tips on this?

I just bought this. Found a few libraries on the net but none of them seem to work 100% with this model. Is there any code anyone can share that is guaranteed to work with the RN-XV? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

By the looks of the comments above i dont think it works with
WRL-09976 xbee shield. Not without stuffing it anyway.
I was wondering if the following solution may work for electronic noobs like me.
Buy the following.
BOB-08276 Breakout Board for xbee module.
BOB-08745 Logic Level Convertor
Solder up the break out board and plug in the wifly into a breadboard.
Power it via the 3.3 volt arduino uno supply.
Use the logic level convertor to handle tx and rx from the arduino and the wifly board
Anybody think this would work ?
Thanks in advance.

I’m trying to get an RN-XV to work with an Arduino Uno and a XBee Shield (WRL-09976). Sending data to the Arduino works like a charm but sending from it does not work. I have tried both using pin 0 and 1 with the UART and pin 2 and 3 with SoftSerial. Same result.
If I plug the RN-XV into an XBee Explorer USB (WRL-08687) and connect it to my PC it works (sending and receiving) and I have stored a setup in the module that works with my network. I can connect to the RN-XV through my wifi network regardless of where it is plugged in as long as it has power.
As a last effort I have tried using a XBee Explorer Regulated (WRL-09132) wiring VCC, GND, DIN and DOUT in the same way as with the XBee Shield with the same result. Can receive but not send from the Arduino Uno.
As someone has suggested I have also tried to invert the DIN line to the RN-XV. No luck with that.
I’m stuck here. Can anyone enlighten me please? How can I get an RN-XV working with an Arduino Uno and a XBee Shield (WRL-09976)?

OK! Kind of fixed it my self. For some reason nothing is passed through diode attached to DIN on the XBee shield to the RN-XV. (Works fine with XBee modules….). So i removed it. Added a voltage divider between the Arduino TX-Pin and GND and connected the DIN pin to the divider. The sheld is now a 5V only shield but works with both Xbee and RN-XV. Voltage divider: TX-10K-DIN-20K-GND.
Same modification will probably work with the XBee Explorer Regulated (WRL-09132).
Now I’m happy!

(Is it possible to add the schematics and eagle files for this module or break-out board?)
*edit
It’s a module from Rover Networks and the schematics are in the datasheet, my bad! The red board color threw me off :)

60 units in stock as of 10/07/11, 0 units as of 10/10/11. Something tells me it’s popular :)
I did'nt want to order more of this before after the weekend, luckily I checked the stock before going to work, and saw that they only had 17 units left. So I had to deside to order some then and there. And now I’m glad I did.
Anyway, I hope sparkfun will get more of these soon :)

I unfortunately live on the West Coast and by the time I got into the office they were already gone :( I know you get them when you get them but is there any idea when they will be in next? I guess I should just back order some instead of this happening I just had no idea that Sparkfun would get so few and that they would be gone this fast.

Can someone please share an example Sketch on how to get this to work in Serial mode with an Arduino Uno? I have downloaded the NewSoftSerial library, and can see that it has updated the Uno when running, but I have no idea how to continue to go from there. I am trying to control the MP3Trigger V2 through this connection. Also, is there a way to configure the WiFi settings from the Sketch rather than doing so in a AdHoc connection?
Thanks in advance!!
Tom

OK. Some minor progress. The jumpers on the ArduinoXbee are now on the Xbee and I have changed receive and send to 0 and 1 instead of the 2 and 3:
// Pins are 3 for INCOMING TO Arduino, 5 for OUTGOING TO Wifly
// Arduino WiFly
// 2 - receive TX (Send from Wifly, Receive to Arduino)
// 3 - send RX (Send from Arduino, Receive to WiFly)
WiFlySerial WiFly(0,1);
Now I am getting the following in the serial: Auto-Assoc roving1 chan=0 mode=NONE FAILED
TX light on the Arduino Uno blinks once in awhile but the RX light never turns on. Are my pins still set wrong?

roving1 is the default access point RN uses to test the modules before shipping, all you have to do it change it with the set wlan ssid command. More info can be seen at: http://www.rovingnetworks.com/files/resources/RN_Product_Training2010v7.pdf

Now I am getting the following in the serial:
Auto-Assoc roving1, AUTO ASSOC IS LOOKING FOR ANY AVAILABLE WIFI TO CONNECT TO. BUT I FOUND IT WOULD NOT CONNECT AUTOMATICALY. I HAD TO MANUALLY SET THE WIFI DETAILS FOR IT TO CONNECT TO MY WIFI.
IF YOUR GETTING THIS RESPONSE IN THE SERIAL WINDOW, THEN THE XV TO ARDUINO CONNECTION IS WORKING.
you need to setup the rn-xv to connect with your home wifi. I used an Xbee regulated USB explorer for simplicity. I also used tera-term for the terminal client to connect to the xv via the USB regulated explorer. the user manual describes the commands needed to setup the xv with your home wifi.

I got as far as you, and I even could read messages send over UDP. But I had to preconfigure the wifly RN XV using XBee Explorer USB, since I wasn’t able to enter the command mode using an Arduino and the Xbee shield.
Has any one accomplished that?

Hi All,
Been trying to get the RN-VX to work with the ArduinoXBee v1.1 (M. Yarza). I am using the WiFly_Test sketch (Tom Waldock) to test it out. The jumpers on the ArduinoXBee board are on the USB and the sketch is stopping at:
Starting WiFly Tester.
Free memory:971
Any tips on getting it to work would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Anyone have any issues connecting to a router with this module? Ive been trying the speakerjet tutorial with no success. I can telnet to it by bringing pin 8 to high for Adhoc mode and ran the cmds to set the connections, but that did not work either. Help s much appreciated. Thanks!
EDIT: Never mind. Got it!

I’m trying to figure out page 5 of the datasheet. Are the resisters that it’s talking about on the shield, or should they be installed externally. My reading of it is that they are on the shield (the default configuration), which would fix pins 13, 15, and 18 to GPIO. Does that sound correct?
I also don’t understand the values for R8,11,17,20 (0R?).
Edit: Looking at the picture, which I can see better than the device itself ;-) It looks like the resisters are on the back of the shield. I would have to de-solder one of the 0 (0 ohms?) resisters on the back to add an additional sensor input. I’m assuming these resisters are intended to make the sensor inputs 3.3V compatible, whereas the reference manual states a 1.2V max.

I seem to recall hearing in the original Friday product update that you could use a U.FL connector and on inspection there is a footprint laid out for one.
The project I’m planning ends up requiring an external antenna.
So I guess my question is after soldering on a U.FL connector would it be prudent to remove the wire antenna or would leaving it there like a vestigial tail simply not cause any issues?

I had trouble with this device using an xbee regulated WRL-09132.
Sending commands throught it would not reach the RN-XV. Switched to the USB regulated Xbee, and Presto. I could send commands to it no problem. This might help others!!

yes, works like a charm. Check out this post about my first project using this module with the FIO - http://vinterstitial.blogspot.com/2012/01/internet-doorbell-mk-i.html There is some example web server code at the bottom. The user manual is really useful in configuring it. I used xbee radios to program the FIO wirelessly, then just dropped in the configured wifly module and voila.

Being that its 2.4Ghz (802.11) it will talk about as far as your laptop will from your router. Although placement of antenna, and even switching the antenna to a omni or patch antenna, will greatly increase range. I could be said they will ‘talk’ 20 feet and be valid, or they could be set up to ‘talk’ 20 miles, it all depends on much more then just the module itself. As always, when it comes to ‘distance’ - you mileage will vary.

Depending on how its configured, it can be a replacement to the wifly shield AND a arduino. As long as you stay within the specs and limit the analog sensors, you can use this as a stand-alone device without a arduino all together, after its correctly configured, just like a xbee.

Based on specs and what I can see visualy, it does not have the SPI-to-UART (SC16IS750) chip. That means the Arduino’s UART (pin 0 and 1) has to do the talking, instead of using the SPI header (pins 10,11,12, 13).

Does any one know the spec difference between this RN-XV and the WiFly GSX breakout (below) that might account for the price differential? Is it the built-in antenna or ufl connector on the GSX? Is the RN-XV less functional somehow?

The GSX breakout uses the RN-131C which is much more expensive than the RN-171 used by this RN-XV.
The only reason for this that I could find in the specs is the power. The 131 is 18dB whereas the 171 is up to 12dB… that’s about 4-5 times more powerful !
Dan

I have a few of these, mostly used as an alternative to Xbee devices on a sensor network when it’s more convenient to use Wifi. They mostly work as advertised, but about half of them fail to “sleep” which makes them not that useful for battery operated applications. In theory you set up a configuration allowing “set sys sleep N” and the module should go into low power mode drawing <100uA until an event wakes it up (a character interrupt or a pin signal). Normally this works but a few of the modules I’ve tried draw 3-10mA in this state vs <100uA, and they’re too expensive to keep buying new ones until I get one that works. Probably ESP8266 is a better direction to go in now unless you need the specific command set and pinout.

Mixed happiness

If this device is used through an existing WIFI router, it works very well. Communications is fast and reliable. On the other hand, if this device is used as an access point it generally does not work. Windows 7 PCs can connect to it, but the firmware will report CRASH and then reboot as soon as an attempt to send data occurs. Numerous reports of this are posted on the Internet, so this is not a problem that only I have observed. Microchip bought out Roving Networks, and does not actually seem interested in fixing this problem.

Well documented, great performance

I was astounded at the quality of this module for how cheap it is. The documentation is flawless, and I had no issues setting this up for my exact needs. It also performed incredibly well, even in a noisy PLC lab at my school where I was doing an industry project my robot was able to drive out the door, down the hallway, and into the grounds. If you need a cheap easy to use wifi module that will perform well, you can’t do much better than this

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